Social Security: The Inherent Contradiction

Peter J. Ferrara

In this comprehensive examination of America's social security system, economist-lawyer Peter J. Ferrara offers a thorough and solid brief against maintaining the present system. He presents conclusive evidence that social security has been sold to the American people by deceit and misrepresentation and that the social security system's financial troubles, far from being ameliorated by recent tax increases, are getting worse by the day because of the demographics of population growth. He analyzes, and finds wanting, the rationales for the system made by some of America's leading economists and social security officials.

But this book is not all negatives. After laying a careful groundwork of statistical fact that indicts social security--most of it gathered from the Social Security Administration itself--Ferrara explores the more important philosophical questions that a social security apparatus necessarily raises for a free society and then confronts the ultimate question: Should there be a social security system in America's future?

You may not agree with all that you find between these pages, but this work will be an invaluable reference source for anyone interested in the continuing problems of one of this country's most ambitious and expensive social programs. No other single source gathers together so much material on benefits, law, economics, and political theory, all in one volume at the reader's fingertips. This book will become an integral part of the ongoing debate on the future of the social security system.

"A provocative analysis that should stimulate a rethinking of the role of social security in our society."
-Edgar K. Browning
University of Virginia

"The book will have to be read by anyone who wants to know how social security became the biggest tax program we have and why it is rapidly creating the most important economic problem for the next generation. This book manages to get the important points across in an eminently readable style. It should have a wide audience."
-Sam Peltzman
Professor of Business Economics
University of Chicago

CONTENTS

Part I: The Defects of the Social Security System

1.The Inherent Contradiction
2. Social Security : Myth and Reality
3. Social Security and the Economy
4. Social Security and the Individual
5. Social Security and Bankruptcy
6. Social Security and Miniorities
7. Social Security and Politics
8. The Rationales for Social Security

Part 2: The Major Reform Proposals

10. Social Security and Reform
11. Social Security: The Ideal System
12. Epilogue

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter J. Ferrara is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College, where he studied both law and economics. At Harvard he was active in journalism and the media, serving as an editorial writer and executive board member of the Harvard Crimson, editor-in-chief of the national newsletter of the Center for Libertarian Studies, and assistant producer of a local radio program. As a research assistant at a Boston-based consulting firm, he worked with Arthur Laffer and other economists on the development of an econometric model to measure the empirical impact of various supply-side tax cuts. Mr. Ferrara practiced law in New York City, specializing in corporate litigation. He is currently a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

"This is a forceful presentation of the libertarian political philosophy...suitable for large public and academic libraries."
-Library Journal